A Great Dinner at Tin Thai Kitchen [TGLRC #11]

I love Thai food. The blend of sweet, sour, salt and spiciness just tingle my taste-buds in delight. There is just something complex in the mixture of all those exotic ingredients that make Thai cuisine so great.

Tin Thai is located on the corner Las Positas Road and S Vasco Road behind 7/11. When you walk inside you’ll notice that the atmosphere is a bit unique for a Thai place. It has a cabin-like rustic feel with a country modern flair to it. That’s the best way I can describe it. The modern part being the nice Pandora music station they play in the background.

While most Thai restaurants offer lots of traditional Thai dishes, Tin Thai simplifies their menu in favor of more specialty/gourmet dishes. Their approach is quality over quantity and it works well. Their vegetables are always fresh, their meats are always tender, and I haven’t had anything on their menu that wasn’t full of flavor.

Since it was a cold evening, we started off with a couple Chicken Coconut Galanga soups ($4.00 each) to warm up. Unfortunately they don’t have Tom Kha Gai soup on the menu as it’s my favorite soup on the planet. Their version is similar though, I think it just lacks lemongrass as an ingredient.

For drinks, my wife ordered her usual Coke ($1.50), which is served from a can and with a jar type glass. I ordered the Singha Thai Beer ($4.50), of course, which is pleasantly served up alongside a chilled glass.

Since Andrea and I come here often, we always order the Beef Pad Se-Ew ($9.00). It’s our favorite right above Pad Thai. If you’ve never had it, I highly recommend it. For our second entree, we always try and mix it up. The curries are great, the Grilled Skirt Steak is awesome, but this time we went for the Moo Yarng ($11.00), which is marinated pork with sticky rice. It too was excellent and very tender. Just go easy on the sauce as it can be spicy for some people, including my wife.

Our total bill for two entrées, two soups and two drinks came to $38.15. While not inexpensive, it’s worth it for the quality of food you get at Tin Thai Kitchen. We’ve also never walked out of the restaurant feeling hungry. Quite the opposite really.

So if you’re in the mood for Thai food with a gourmet flair to it, I encourage you to try them out. They have excellent food and it’s one of our all time favorite restaurants in Livermore.